3. Fortune's Favorites Page 29

  The taming of Pompey proved to be more difficult than reconciling Rome to the proscriptions, as Sulla learned the day before he held his triumph. Pompey had ignored his instructions from the Dictator and sailed with his whole army from Africa to Italy. The letter he sent Sulla from Tarentum informed Sulla that his army had refused to let him sail without every last one of his loyal soldiers coming along, and he claimed to have been powerless to prevent this mass embarkation (without explaining how it was that he had gathered sufficient ships to fit five extra legions and two thousand horse on board); at the end of his missive he again asked to be allowed to celebrate a triumph. The Dictator sped a couriered letter to Tarentum in which for the second time he denied Pompey this mouth watering triumph. The same courier carried back a letter from Pompey to Sulla apologizing for the refractory behavior of his army, which he protested yet again he could not control. Those naughty, naughty soldiers were insisting their darling general be allowed his well deserved triumph! If the Dictator were to continue his negative attitude, Pompey was very much afraid his naughty, naughty soldiers might take matters into their own hands, and elect to march to Rome. He himself would of course! do everything in his power to prevent this! A second letter was galloped from Sulla down the Via Appia to Tarentum, containing a third refusal: NO TRIUMPH. This proved to be one refusal too many. Pompey's six legions and two thousand cavalry troopers set out to march to Rome. Their darling general came along with them, protesting in another letter to Sulla that he was only doing so in order to prevent his men taking actions they might later have cause to regret. The Senate had been privy to every episode in this duel of wills, horrified at the presumption of a twenty four year old knight, and had issued a senatus consultum to back every one of Sulla's orders and denials. So when Sulla and the Senate were informed that Pompey and his army had reached Capua, resistance hardened. The time was now nearing the end of February, winter storms came and went, and the Campus Martius was already crowded because other armies were sitting on it two legions belonging to Lucius Licinius Murena, the ex governor of Asia Province and Cilicia, and two legions belonging to Gaius Valerius Flaccus, the ex governor of Gaul across the Alps. Each of these men was to triumph shortly. Hot on the heels of the inevitable letter ordering Pompey to halt at Capua (and informing Pompey that there were four battle hardened legions occupying the Campus Martius), the Dictator himself left Rome in the direction of Capua. With him were the consuls Decula and the elder Dolabella, Metellus Pius the Pontifex Maximus, Flaccus Princeps Senatus the Master of the Horse, and an escort of lictors; no soldiers traveled with them to protect them. Sulla's letter caught Pompey before he could leave Capua, and the news that four battle hardened legions were encamped outside Rome shocked him into remaining where he was. It had never been Pompey's intention to go to war against Sulla; the march was a bluff purely designed to obtain a triumph. So to learn that the Dictator had four battle hardened legions at his immediate disposal broke upon Pompey like a torrent of ice cold water. He himself knew he was bluffing but did Sulla know it? Of course not! How could he? To Sulla, this march would look like a repeat of his own from Capua in the year that he had been consul. Pompey flew into an absolute funk. So when the news came that Sulla in person was approaching without an army to back him, Pompey scrambled frantically to ride out of his camp and up the Via Appia also without his army to back him. The circumstances of this meeting bore some resemblance to their first encounter at the ford across the Calor River. But today Sulla was not drunk, though inevitably he was mounted upon a mule. He was dressed in the purple bordered toga praetexta and preceded by twenty four lictors shivering in crimson tunics and brass bossed black leather belts, with the ominous axes inserted in their bundles of rods. In Sulla's wake there followed thirty more lictors twelve belonging to Decula, twelve to the elder Dolabella, and six to the Master of the Horse, who had a praetor's rank. So the occasion was more dignified and impressive than had been that at the Calor crossing. More in tune with poor Pompey's original fantasies. But there could be no arguing that Pompey had grown in stature during the twenty two months which had elapsed since his original meeting with Sulla; he had conducted one campaign in conjunction with Metellus Pius and Crassus, another in Clusium with Sulla and Crassus, and a third in complete command abroad. So now he didn't quibble about wearing his best gold plated suit of armor, and flashed and glittered quite as much as did his gaily caparisoned Public Horse. The Dictator's party was coming up on foot; unwilling to look more martial, Pompey dismounted. Sulla was wearing his Grass Crown, an unkind reminder that Pompey as yet had not managed to win one had not managed to win a Civic Crown, for that matter! Silly wig and all, scar spattered face and all, the Dictator still contrived to look every inch the Dictator. Pompey was quick to note it. The lictors moved twelve to either side of the road, thus permitting the tanned young man in his gold plated armor to walk between their files toward Sulla, who had halted and arranged his party so that he stood a few feet ahead of the others, but was not isolated from them. "Ave, Pompeius Magnus!" cried Sulla, right hand lifted. "Ave, Dictator of Rome!" cried Pompey, transported with joy. Sulla had actually called him in public by the third name he had given himself he could now officially be Pompey the Great! They kissed on the mouth, something neither man enjoyed. And, the lictors preceding as always, turned slowly to walk in the direction of Pompey's camp, the others following on. "You're prepared to admit I'm Great!" said Pompey happily. "The name has stuck," said Sulla. "But so has Kid Butcher." "My army is determined that I triumph, Lucius Cornelius." "Your army has absolutely no right to make that determination, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus." Out flew both powerful, freckled arms. What can I do?' he cried. "They won't take a scrap of notice of me!" "Rubbish!" said Sulla roundly. "Surely you realize, Magnus, that throughout the course of four letters if you count the original one you received in Utica you have demonstrated that you are not competent enough to control your troops?'' Pompey flushed, drew his small mouth in even smaller. "That is not a fair criticism!" he exclaimed. It most certainly is. You have admitted its truth yourself in no less than three letters." "You're deliberately failing to understand!" said Pompey, red faced. "They're only behaving like this because they love me!" "Love or hate, insubordination is insubordination. If they belonged to me, I'd be decimating them." "It's a harmless insubordination," Pompey protested lamely. No insubordination is harmless, as you well know. You are threatening the legally appointed Dictator of Rome." "This is not a march on Rome, Lucius Cornelius, it's just a march to Rome," labored Pompey. "There is a difference! My men simply want to see that I receive what is due to me." What is due to you, Magnus, is whatever I, as Dictator of Rome, decide to give you. You are twenty four years old. You are not a senator. I have agreed to call you by a wonderful name which could only be improved by degree Magnus can go to Maximus, but nowhere else unless it be diminished to Parvus or Minutus or even Pusillus," said Sulla. Pompey stopped in the middle of the road, faced Sulla; the party behind somehow forgot to stop until they were well and truly close enough to hear. "I want a triumph!" said Pompey loudly, and stamped a foot. "And I say you can't have one!" said Sulla, equally loudly. Pompey's broad, temper reddened face grew beetling, the thin lips drew back to reveal small white teeth. "You would do well to remember, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Dictator of Rome, that more people worship the rising than the setting sun!" For no reason any of the enthralled listeners could determine, Sulla burst out laughing. He laughed until he cried, slapping his hands helplessly on his thighs and quite losing control of the many folds of toga draped upon his left arm; it began to fall away and drag upon the ground. "Oh, very well!" he gasped when he could speak at all. "Have your triumph!" And then, still shaken by fresh guffaws, he said, "Don't just stand there, Magnus, you great booby! Help me pick up my toga!"

  "You are a complete fool, Magnus," said Metellus Pius to Pompey when he had an opportunity to speak in private. "I think I've been very clever," said Pompey smugly. Still not consul though he had entere
d into his late forties, the Piglet had aged well; his curly brown hair was frosted with white at the temples and his skin bore none but attractive lines at the corners of his brown eyes. Even so, next to Pompey he paled into insignificance. And he knew it. Not so much with envy as with sadness. "You've been anything but clever," the Piglet said, pleased to see the brilliant blue eyes widen incredulously. "I know our master considerably better than you do, and I can tell you that his intelligence is greater than both of ours put together. If he has a failing, it is only a failing of temperament not of character! And this failing doesn't affect the brilliance of his mind one iota. Nor does it affect the consummate skill of his actions, as man or as Dictator." Pompey blew a derisive noise. "Oh, Pius, you're not making any sense! Failing? What failing of Sulla's can you possibly mean?" "His sense of the ridiculous, of course. Better to cuh cuh call it that than a sense of huh huh huh humor." The Piglet floundered, his own disability recollected, and stopped for a few moments to discipline his tongue. "I mean things like his appointing me the Pontifex Maximus when I stumble over my words. He can never resist that kind of joke." Pompey contrived to look bored. I have no idea where you are going, Pius, or what it has to do with me." "Magnus, Magnus! He's been having a laugh at your expense all along! That's what it has to do with you. He always intended that you should triumph what does he care about your age or your knight's status? You're a military hero, and he raises them to all kinds of exalted heights! But he wanted to see how much it meant to you, and how far you'd go to get it. You should never have risen to his bait. Now, he has you properly assessed and tucked away in his mental accounting system. He knows now that your courage is almost the equal of your self esteem, not to mention your ambition. Almost. But not quite. He knows now that at the bitter end, Magnus, you won't stick the course." "What do you mean, I won't stick the course?" "You know perfectly well what I mean." "I was marching on Rome!" "Rubbish!" The Piglet smiled. "You were marching to Rome. You said so yourself. And I believed you. So did Sulla." Confounded, Pompey glared at his critic, not sure what he ought to what he could say. "I got my triumph." "Yes, you did. But he's making you pay a price for it you wouldn't have had to pay if you'd behaved yourself." "Price? Price?" Pompey shook his head like a large and angry animal confused by teasing. "Today, Pius, you seem quite determined to speak in riddles!" "You'll see," said the Piglet, no less obscure.

  * * *

  And Pompey did see, but not until the day of his triumph. The clues were there; excitement clouded his perceptions, was the trouble. The date of his triumph was set at the twelfth day of March. On the sixth day of March, Gaius Flaccus, the ex governor of Gaul across the Alps, triumphed for victories over rebellious Gallic tribes; and on the ninth day of March, Murena, the ex governor of Asia Province, triumphed for victories in Cappadocia and Pontus. So by the time that the day of Pompey's triumph came round, Rome had had enough of victory parades. A few people turned out, but not a crowd; after Sulla's magnificent two day extravaganza Flaccus had been mildly interesting, Murena somewhat less so, and Pompey hardly at all. For no one knew his name, no one was aware of his youth or beauty, and no one could have cared less. Another triumph? Ho hum, said Rome. However, Pompey wasn't particularly worried as he set off from the Villa Publica; word would fly and the people would come running from all directions when they heard the style of this particular triumph! By the time he turned the corner from the Circus Maximus into the Via Triumphalis, all of Rome would be there to see. In almost every respect his procession was a standard one first the magistrates and senators, then musicians and dancers, the carts displaying spoils and the floats depicting various incidents from the campaign, the priests and the white male sacrificial victims, the captives and hostages, and then the general in his chariot, followed by his army. Even Pompey's garb was correct the purple toga solidly embroidered with gold, the laurel wreath upon his head, the palm embroidered tunic with the massive purple stripe. But when it came to painting his face red with minim, he balked. It was vital to his plans that Rome should see his youth and beauty, the face of an individual. His likeness to Alexander the Great. If his face were to be reduced to a brick red blob, he might be anyone of any age. Therefore, no minim! This barefaced presentation was not the major difference between Pompey and every other triumphing general; that lay in the animals which drew the antique four wheeled triumphal chariot in which Pompey rode. Instead of the customary matched white horses, he was using four enormous male African elephants he had personally captured in Numidia. Four mahouts had worked every day since in Utica and Tarentum, on the Via Appia, at Capua to tame the recalcitrant pachyderms sufficiently to persuade them to act as beasts of slight burden. No easy feat, yet accomplished. Thus Pompey was able to set off in a triumphal chariot towed by four elephants. His companion in the car did not drive, simply held on to a set of ornate reins attached to the flashy trappings worn by these fabulous creatures. The elephants were under the control of the mahouts, each one sitting between a pair of massive, wrinkled grey shoulders more than ten feet off the ground. Once word spread and it would, very quickly! crowds would line the route of the parade just to see this remarkable sight the New Alexander drawn by the very animals Rome regarded as most sacred. Elephants! Gigantic elephants with ears the size of sails and tusks seven feet long! The path of the parade led from the Villa Publica on the Campus Martius to a narrow roadway lined with villas and apartment houses that wound around the base of the Capitoline Hill and approached the Servian Walls below the sharp cliffs at the hill's western end; here was the Porta Triumphalis, through which the parade passed into the city itself. As Pompey 's was the third triumph within six days, senators and magistrates were thoroughly fed up with the whole procedure, so this first contingent was thin of company and inclined to be brisk. Taking their cue from the leaders, the musicians, dancers, carts, floats, priests, sacrificial victims, captives and hostages also moved quickly. Trundling along at the leisurely pace of four elephants harnessed two abreast, Pompey soon fell behind. The chariot came to the Triumphal Gate at last, and stopped dead. The army minus swords and spears but carrying staves wrapped in laurels also stopped. Because the triumphal car was so old it belonged to Etruscan times and had been ceremonial from the beginning, it was much lower to the ground than the classical two wheeled war chariot still employed by some outlandish tribes of Gauls; Pompey couldn't see what was happening over the majestic but tousled rumps of the pair of elephants in front of him. At first he merely fretted and fumed a little; then when the halt became tediously long, he sent his driver forward to see what was the matter. Back came the driver, looking horrified. "Triumphator, the elephants are too big to fit through the gate!" Pompey's jaw dropped. He felt a prickling in his skin, beads of sweat popping out on his forehead. "Nonsense!" he said. "Truly, Triumphator, it is so! The elephants are too big to fit through the gate," the driver insisted. Down from the chariot in all his glory descended Pompey to run, trailing gold and purple garments, in the direction of the gate. There the mahouts belonging to the two leading pachyderms were standing looking helpless; thankfully they turned to Pompey. "The opening is too small," said one. While on his way to the gate, Pompey had been mentally unharnessing the beasts and leading them through the aperture one at a time to the far side, but now he saw what he had not been able to see from the chariot; it was not a question of width, but of height. This opening the only one by which the triumphal parade was permitted to travel was wide enough to allow an army to march through eight abreast, even to allow the entry of a chariot drawn by four horses abreast, or a huge float; but it was not high enough to pass the head of an old and mighty African tusker, as the masonry above it which burrowed into the cliff of the Capitoline Hill began at about the height of these elephants' shoulders. "All right," said Pompey confidently, "unharness them and lead them through one at a time. Just make them bend their heads right down." "They're not trained to do that!" said one mahout, aghast. "I don't care whether they're trained to shit through the eye of a ne
edle!" snapped Pompey, face beginning to look as if it had been painted with minim after all. "Just do it!" The leading elephant refused to bend his head. "Pull on his trunk and make him!" said Pompey. But no amount of pulling on his trunk or sitting on his glorious curving tusks would persuade the beast to bend his head; instead, he became angry. His unrest began to infect the other three, two of whom were still attached to the chariot. They began to back away, and the chariot began to threaten the lionskin clad band of Pompey's standard bearers immediately behind. While the mahouts continued to battle to obey him, Pompey stood articulating every horrific profanity in a ranker soldier's vocabulary and producing threats which reduced the mahouts to glassy eyed jellies of fear. All to no avail. The elephants were too big and too unwilling to be brought through the gate. Over an hour had gone by when Varro came through the gate to see what had gone wrong. He, of course, had been walking with the other senators at the very front of the parade. One look was enough. A terrible urge invaded Varro to lie down in the road and howl with laughter. This he could not do not, one glance at Pompey's face told him, if he wanted to live. "Send Scaptius and some of his men to the Stabulae to get the horses," said Varro crisply. "Come, Magnus, abandon these tantrums and think! The rest of the parade has reached the Forum, and no one knows why you're not following. Sulla is sitting up on Castor's podium fidgeting more and more, and the caterers for the feast in Jupiter Stator are tearing their hair out!" Pompey's answer was to burst into tears and sit down on the dirty cobbles in all his triumphal finery to weep his heart out. Thus it was Varro who sent the men for horses, and Varro who supervised the unhitching of the elephants. By this the scene had been complicated by the arrival of several market gardeners from the Via Recta, armed with shovels and barrows, and determined to appropriate what was known to be the best fertilizer in the world. Stepping unconcernedly between the gigantic legs of the pachyderms, they busied themselves scooping up piles of dung the size of wheels of cheese from Arpinum. Only urgency and pity kept Varro's mirth at bay as he shouted and shooed, finally saw the mahouts get their charges under way toward the Forum Holitorium no one could have driven them back the way they had come, with six legions congesting the roadway. In the meantime the front half of the parade had ground to a halt in the Forum Romanum opposite the imposing Ionic facade of the temple of Castor and Pollux upon which, high up, sat Sulla with his Master of the Horse, the two consuls, and some of his family and friends. Courtesy and custom said that the triumphator must be the most important man in his parade as well as at his feast, so these august men did not participate in the parade, nor would they attend the feast afterward. Everyone was restless; everyone was also cold. The day was fine, but a bitter north wind was blowing, and the sun in the depths of the lower Forum not strong enough to melt the icicles hanging from temple eaves. Finally Varro returned, took the steps of Castor's two at a time, and bent to whisper in Sulla's ear. A huge gust of laughter assailed all the suddenly curious men; then, still laughing, Sulla got to his feet and walked to the edge of the podium to address the crowd. "Wait a little longer!" he shouted. "Our triumphator is coming! He decided he'd improve the look of his parade by using elephants to draw his car instead of horses! But the elephants wouldn't fit through the Porta Triumphalis, so he's had to send for horses!" A pause, and then (quite audibly), "Oh, how I wish I'd been there to see it!" General titters followed that announcement, but only the men who knew Pompey Metellus Pius, Varro Lucullus, Crassus roared their amusement. "You know, it isn't wise to offend Sulla," said Metellus Pius to those around him. "I've noticed it time and time again. He has some sort of exclusive claim on Fortune, so he doesn't even have to exert himself to see a man humiliated. The Goddess does it for him. Sulla is her favorite person in the world." "What I can't understand," said Varro Lucullus, frowning, "is why Pompeius didn't measure the gate beforehand. Give him his due, he's usually very efficient." "Until his daydreams overpower his good sense," said Varro, arriving breathless; he had run all the way from the Triumphal Gate as well as up Castor's steps. "His mind was so set on those wretched elephants that it never occurred to him anything could go wrong. Poor Magnus, he was shocked." "I feel sorry for him, actually," said Varro Lucullus. "So do I, now I've proved my point to him," said Metellus Pius, and looked closely at the panting, scarlet faced Varro. "How is he taking it?" "He'll be all right by the time he gets to the Forum," Varro said, too loyal to describe the bout of tears. Indeed, Pompey carried the rest of his triumphal parade with grace and dignity, though there could be no denying, even in his mind, that the two hour fracture in its middle relegated it to the level of a very pedestrian triumph. Nor had many people lined the route to see him; what were horses compared to old men elephants, especially the plodding bay mediocrities which were all Scaptius could find? It was not until he entered the temple of Jupiter Stator, in which his feast was laid out, that he fully understood how funny the men who mattered thought his elephantine fiasco was. The ordeal had actually begun on his way down from the Capitol after the triumph itself had concluded, when he found a group of people clustered about the base of Scipio Africanus's encolumned statue, laughing hilariously. The moment he drew near, however, everyone cleared a path to make sure he saw what some Forum wit had chalked upon the plinth in huge letters: